Questions and Comments
backfire@ofthisandthat.org

ofthisandthat

Commentary
Copyright © 2010 ofthisandthat.org.  
All rights reserved.
June 10, 2016

Welcome to the Party, America! 11 Muslim women who have been PM or
President

By Juan Cole

Hillary Clinton gave a victory speech Tuesday night positioning herself as the logical
conclusion of the first women’s rights meeting at Seneca Falls in 1848. Along the way,
other milestones have included women gaining the right to vote, in 1919 and the first
woman elected to the Senate, in 1932.

But the US was late. Australia, Denmark and Iceland preceded us in granting the vote
to women in national, parliamentary elections. The republic of Azerbaijan, a Muslim-
majority country, granted the franchise to women in 1918.

Women gained the vote in the Muslim-majority Republic of Turkey in 1934, well before
they did in France (1945).

Women in British India, including the eighth of the population comprising Muslim
women, gained the right to vote in 1935, though of course the ultimate power lay with
the appointed British viceroy until 1947. Still, the legislatures in British India in this
period were hardly powerless and the elections were consequential. British India had
about 300 million people then, so Muslims were some 75 million, though of course not
all were voting age. Still, Muslim women in India were as regards suffrage ahead of
women in many European countries.

Not only did the US lag behind some other countries, including a Muslim country like
Azerbaijan, in granting women the vote, but it has lagged behind in electing a woman
head of state.

Here are 11 Muslim women who served as prime minister or president of their
countries. In some instances they were head of state, in others, head of government.
Many were commander in chief of the armed forces. So it’s nice that a major US party
now seems likely to put forward a woman as standard bearer. But there isn’t any
doubt that the US has lagged behind the rest of the world on gender equality in
politics (Scandinavia typically has a bigger proportion of women in its legislatures than
we have in Congress and some Muslim countries, such as Tunisia and Pakistan, have
a form of quota for women’s seats in parliament). The US, where pundits often wax
supercilious toward the Muslim world, assuming women everywhere there are of low
status, is actually behind some parts of the Muslim world on this measure.

Benazir Bhutto, Prime Minister of Pakistan, 1988 – 1990; 1993 – 1996

Khaleda Zia, Prime Minister of Bangladesh, 1991 – 1996; 2001 – 2006

Tansu Ciller of Turkey, prime minister 1993-1996

Sheikh Hasina, Prime Minister of Bangladesh, 1996 – 2001; 2009 – Present

Megawati Sukarnoputri, President of Indonesia, 2001-2004

Mame Madior Boye, Prime Minister of Senegal, 2001-2002

Atifete Jahjaga, President of Kosovo, 2011-present

Roza Otunbayeva, President of Kyrgyzstan, 2010-2011

Cissé Mariam Kaïdama Sidibé, prime minister of Mali 2011-2012

Aminata Toure, Prime Minister of Senegal, 2013-2014

Ameena Gurib-Fakim, President of Mauritius, 2015 – Present